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THE K IN G 'S
B U S I N E S S
October, 1938
Selfishness The Driving Force In International Affairs
By THE EDITORS
conflicting in te r ests, Smith stated: “Nobody wants war, n o t ev en H itle r, and y e t there will be a war. “Hitler w an ts the fruits of vic to ry w i t h o u t fighting for them. “France wants reasonable s e c u rity so she can straighten out her g r e a t in te rn a l difficulties. “England wants to preserve every square inch of the greatest em p ire in the world.”
Secretary’s list. And this is the outline of aims to which Hull refers as “the only pro gram which can turn the tide of lawlessness and place the world firmly upon the one and only roadway that can lead to enduring peace and security.” If human nature were not, as God’s Word reveals it, essentially selfish, the Sec retary's "foundation” of "economic recon struction” might be a safe basis for inter national peace. But the actual history of America's international relations is that she places her economic interests first. It is most unlikely that Secretary Hull’s "one and only program” will make the nation shift miraculously to a deep concern for the welfare of the whole world—unless the in terests of the United States are given a rea sonable preference! Palestine P rophecy M onthly for September com ments on Arab-Jewish clashes which have increased in frequency and in number of fatalities since the proposal to partition Palestine. The magazine quotes information received from an observer in Palestine: "Britain is ready to spend much money now to handle the situation, for events of recent months have con vinced the leaders of the empire that with imperialistic ambitions growing in Italy and Germany, Palestine’s stra tegic value increases. It is the watch- tower of the Suez Canal, a base on the air line to India and the main outlet for Near East oil.” Christians and Zionists alike hailed the British General Allenby’s peaceful occupa tion of Jerusalem in 1917 as a great spiritual victory. And surely the development in Palestine is a part of God’s outworking of the prophesied restoration of the Hebrew nation and "the land” (cf. Ezek. 37:12, 14, 21; 36:34-36). But let no one suppose that Great Britain maintains her difficult and costly control in Palestine from purely al truistic motives! Hungary Admiral Nicholas Horthy, regent of the vacant Hungarian throne, visited Adolf Hitler late in August. His “entertainment”
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TW O D ICTATORS M A K E FRIENDLY GESTURE Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, found on opposing sides during the World War, are pictured in cordial farewell on the station platform at Rome as Hitler left for Germany after his significant visit in Italy last May. (Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, can be seen behind them, his arm outstretched in the Nazi salute.) But the duration of the "Rome-Berlin axis" did not depend on this handclasp of dictators, but upon their respective national interests as they then viewed them. W H ERE great national interests are at stake, world powers no longer are making much effort to cloak
Exposing the innate selfishness of inter national policies, W alter Lippmann wrote from Paris for his “Today and Tomorrow” column: “Peace depends for the present not on treaties or moral principles or peace ful sentiments but on 'estimates as to the chances of winning a war. “Whenever the chances are even or better, the chances of war are in creased: whenever the defeat seems certain, the chances of peace improve. This is the essential principle of Euro pean politics today, and whoever un derstands this principle has the key which explains the whole complicated and otherwise unintelligible business.” The United States Material prosperity is the chief aim of nations today, according to the realistic view expressed by Secretary of State Cor dell Hull in his August 16 address: “W e believe in, we support and we recommend to all nations economic reconstruction as the foundation of national and international well-being and stability,” International law, respect for treaties, voluntary restraint from using force, arms limitation, and other more idealistic matters come last on the
their actions with idealistic phrases. There may be a slight merit in this acknowledg ment of the materialism that actually con trols international affairs. But clearly men still seek their own solution of their prob lems. They do not come to God’s Word for H is way. God has said: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6 :3 3 ). Still suffering from a world war and an economic collapse, nations and their leaders blame their troubles on “economic nationalism”.—merely, another name for greed on a national scale—and talk of em ploying "the way of reason.” Following are gleanings from current news comments that spread out a pano rama of selfishness in national proportions. W a r Prospects "Nobody wants war and yet the sum total o f what everybody wants means war, and it will come eventually.” So declared Paul C. Smith, general manager of the San Francisco Chronicle after his recent tour through Europe as Herbert Hoover’s trav eling companion. Naming some of the
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